HEINUS – NEW YORK The recent destruction of the stage by unhappy fans at a canceled Metallica concert in Guragon, India, is not just a modern phenomenon. Concert-going crowds have l0ng been a dangerous, double-edged sword for performers. There are many examples of fan riots at concerts down through history, including these famous music riots:
Mozart at the Festspielhaus Frankfurt – A date on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s wildly popular “Europe 1782″ tour, Mozart arrived hours late for the concert in Frankfurt. The concertgoers were angry and threw hundreds of sausages onto the stage. When Mozart finally arrived, he tossed one of the wieners back at the crowd. The audience became enraged and surged onstage, smashed Mozart’s piano and repeatedly tossed the composer overhead like a beach ball. An alert stagehand in the catwalk above hooked Mozart’s foot with a rope and pulled him to safety. A frightened Mozart refused to ever eat sausage again, but he did become the first performer to officially fahrtaufderkonzertmenge (crowd surf).
George Gershwin at the Belasco Theater – In June 1925, Gershwin, fresh off the success of his suite Rhapsody in Blue, was scheduled to play a concert of his follow-on composition, Arpeggio in Argyle, to a select audience at the Belasco. Unfortunately, the “Scottish American Society of the Tartan” got wind of the concert and considered it a slur on Scotland. They forced their way into the theater and pelted concert goers with shortbread, oatmeal and sheep dip. Gershwin was forced to flee and the Belasco was shut down for six months to clean the oatmeal and dip off the proscenium arch.
Perry Como at NBC studios – On the December 17, 1955, installment of his Perry Como Show, Como attempted to sing the Christmas song, “Oh, Little Donkey, Where Does Yonder Star Lead Me on this Cold, Cold Nighttime in the Deep Valley Under the Hill So Close to December’s End, Oh, Tell Me, Little One?” but the audience had been primed for Como to sing a duet of “Jingle Bells” with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. They rioted, destroyed the set and cameras, ate the cupcakes and all the snacks in the green room and occupied the studio for two weeks until the president of NBC agreed to their demand to be individually photographed with Sen. McCarthy and former State Department official Alger Hiss.
Shirley Bassey at The Sands Casino - Soon after her 1971 smash hit with the theme song for the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, Bassey was set to begin a 5-week engagement at the Sands in Las Vegas when the audience for the first show mistook her for singer Eartha Kitt, rushed the stage and demanded a refund. When the manager of the casino, Whittaker Chambers, pointed out the show was free, audience members went on a rampage of arson, divorce and polyester-induced looting. Seven casinos in Las Vegas were burned to the ground, requiring the entire city to be temporarily relocated to Frank Sinatra’s Lake Tahoe estate for June and July.
John Tesh at the Orpheum Theater - After performing at the 2,500-seat Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tesh’s manager for his 1997 “Tesh Trouble” world tour booked Tesh into the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, failing to notice that it was Los Angeles, Utah. Co-located with a tattoo parlor, the theater had 27 seats and standing room for five adults (or seven pre-teens). In addition, Mormon law forbade the playing of music on stage, only allowing performers to set up in the tattoo parlor and pipe the music to a mono speaker in a nearby laundromat. The concert was a sell out and the audience waited patiently for the show to start. When Tesh discovered the restrictions, however, he personally began to riot, overturning bicycles in the street and setting fire to cans of sterno. Police were called in, but not before Tesh had caused more than $57 worth of damage to downtown Los Angeles. Tesh credits his arrest and 41-minute incarceration with “changing his life” and his eventual decision to quit music and start a new career in animal cosmetics.
(Las Vegas image by BrendelSignature)
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